Kingston Town Classic will Feature Big Time Horses in 2017

The Marlboro 50,000, the Western Mail Classic, the Rothwell’s Stakes, the Winfield Stakes, the Beat Diabetes Stakes 2 and the Fruit ‘N’ Veg Stakes?

Many of those with some longevity or some historical knowledge figured out the connection straight away.

Others should feel no remorse or embarrassment for not knowing that all six of those races were one and the same, and were the previous names given to one of Ascot’s premier events, the Group 1 Kingston Town Classic.

The race became the Kingston Town Classic in 2007. It was a principal race until 1979 and Kingston Town himself won in in 1982.

Up until this year’s Cox Plate, Kingston Town was the only three-time winner of Moonee Valley’s premier weight-for-age race. He was joined by Winx when she won for the third in October of 2017.

One notable distinction between those two is that when Kingston Town was winning his three Cox Plates, punters stood a chance of making some money from backing him. He jumped at $2.50 in 1980, $1.67 in 1981 and $2.75 in 1982.

Winx, by comparison, paid $4.60 when she won as a relatively unknown entity in 2015, but she paid only $1.70 in 2016 and $1.10 in 2017.

Stratum Star won the Kingston Town Classic last year. After that win, Stratum Star ran four more times, for two wins, but he was retired after running a disappointing sixth out of seven in the Group 1 Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill in March of 2017.

Multiple winners of the Kingston Town Classic, along with its other iterations, include Family Of Man, Summer Beau, Old Comrade, Niconero and Playing God.

Darren Weir intends to run Black Heart Bart in the race, along with stablemate Ulmann.